#Ethereum Price Jumps On Major Bank Approval And Approaching Proof-Of-Stake

Ethereum has risen sharply after the cryptocurrency's founder Vitalik Buterin signaled a switch to so-called proof-of-stake is "no longer so far away," topping off a strong week for ethereum that began with U.S. bank JP Morgan Chase revealing it had created an enterprise version of the ethereum blockchain. Speaking at a conference in Prague, Buterin outlined the path to ethereum 2.0, which he now calls Serenity, and is designed to solve ethereum's scalability issues — something that has created challenges for many major cryptocurrencies.

The ethereum price is up by 4% over the last 24 hours, adding some 8% over the last week, to trade at highs of $210 yesterday. Ethereum currently handles around 15 transactions per second, but this could be increased many fold under proof-of-stake.Ethereum currently works on a proof-of-work algorithm, which is computing power-intensive and becomes more so as the system develops. The new system will mean the more tokens that a node owns, the more chance it has of winning the race to verify the next block.

About Ethereum (ETH): Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property.This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middleman or counterparty risk.The project was bootstrapped via an ether presale in August 2014 by fans all around the world. It is developed by the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, with contributions from great minds across the globe.

Ethereum (ETH) is the 2nd largest cryptocurrency by market cap size. It is down 0.47% over the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $208.06. It can be bought with fiat dollars, credit cards, or debit cards on cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase, CEX.io, and Changelly.